Part 15 (1/2)

Notwithstanding all this, there areon the dark side, and perhaps rendered splenetic, and soured by not being invited to these sumptuous entertainments, have affected to fear, that their frequent repetition would have a tendency to produce a famine, or at least to check the increase, if not extirpate the species, of those birds, beasts, and fish, hich the tables of the rich are now so plentifully supplied But these half reasoners do not take into their calculation the nu cattle being fed so fat that there is no lean left; or that more ancient association, sanctioned and supported by severe acts of parliaame From the exertions of these and similar societies, we may reasonably hope there is no occasion to dread any such cala under such hecato account, estion, shake his head, and shudder a little ”On the 29th October, 1727, when George II

and Queen Caroline honoured the city with their presence at Guildhall, there were 19 tables, covered with 1075 dishes The whole expense of this entertainment to the city was 4889_l_ 4_s_”

To return to the print;--a self-sufficient and consequential beadle, reading the direction of a letter to Francis Goodchild, Esq Sheriff of London, has all the insolence of office The ie is well contrasted by the huer behind the bar The gallery is well furnished with musicians busily employed in their vocation

Music hath chare breast, And therefore proper at a sheriff's feast

Besides a portrait of Williae, the hall is ornath of that illustrious hero Sir William Walworth, in commemoration of whose valour the weapon hich he slew Wat Tyler was introduced into the city arms

[Illustration: INDUSTRY AND IDLENESS

PLATE 8

THE INDUSTRIOUS 'PRENTICE GROWN RICH, AND SHERIFF OF LONDON]

INDUSTRY AND IDLENESS

PLATE IX

THE IDLE 'PRENTICE BETRAYED BY A PROStitUTE, AND TAKEN IN A NIGHT CELLAR WITH HIS ACCOMPLICE

”The adulteress will hunt for precious life” Proverbs, chap vi

verse 26

Froence, we return to take a further view of the progress of sloth and infa the idle 'prentice a step nearer to the approach of his unhappy end We see hi with the worst of the hus of the people; one of his co a one-eyed wretch, who seemed hackneyed in the ways of vice To break this vile connexion he was sent to sea; but, no sooner did he return, than his wicked disposition took its natural course, and every day he lived served only to habituate hireater criminality He presently discovered his old acquaintance, who, no doubt, rejoiced to find him so ripe for mischief: with this worthless, abandoned fellow, he enters into engagements of the worst kind, even those of robbery andto their own destruction

About the time when these plates were first published, which was in the year 1747, there was a noted house in Chick Lane, Smithfield, that went by the name of the Blood-Bowl House, so called from the numerous scenes of blood that were al a receptacle for prostitutes and thieves; where every species of delinquency was practised; and where, indeed, there seldom passed a month without the commission of some act ofa cellar) was our hero soon introduced; where he is now represented in company with his acco just co a passer-by, and conveying hiround, contrived for this purpose,) dividing aotten booty, which consists of tatches, a snuff-box, and some other trinkets In the midst of this wickedness, he is betrayed by his strumpet (a proof of the treachery of such wretches) into the hands of the high constable and his attendants, who had, with better success than heretofore, traced hiround of this print serves rather as a representation of night-cellars in general, those infamous receptacles for the dissolute and abandoned of both sexes, than a further illustration of our artist's chief design; however, as it was Mr

Hogarth's intention, in the history before us, to encourage virtue and expose vice, by placing the one in an ahtened scenes of wickedness and i the half-depraved youth of this metropolis, from even the possibility of the co them from these abodes of wretchedness; as this was manifestly his intention, it cannot be deemed a deviation from the subject By the skirmish behind, the woman without a nose, the scattered cards upon the floor, &c we are shown that drunkenness and riot, disease, prostitution, and ruin are the dreadful attendants of sloth, and the general fore-runners of crimes of the deepest die; and by the halter suspended fro, over the head of the sleeper, we are to learn two things--the indifference of uilt in every situation

[Illustration: INDUSTRY AND IDLENESS

PLATE 9

THE IDLE 'PRENTICE BETRAYED BY A PROStitUTE]

INDUSTRY AND IDLENESS

PLATE X

THE INDUSTRIOUS 'PRENTICE ALDERMAN OF LONDON; THE IDLE ONE BROUGHT BEFORE HIM, AND IMPEACHED BY HIS ACCOMPLICE